We're really excited because Body Blow is out in just a couple of days.
If you haven't entered our Goodreads giveaway yet, there's still time. 5 copies of the second Eddie Savage thriller are up for grabs, and you can enter here.
In the meantime, we've just released a book trailer for Body Blow, and we think it looks awesome!
Last year we filmed the trailer for Long Reach on location, down by the Dartford Marshes.
So, for Body Blow, we decided we had to go one step further...
To Malaga.
Yes... we sent a small team over to film part of the trailer on location in Benalmadena, Spain, where the latest Eddie Savage thriller is set. You can read more about how Peter Cocks chose this location in his guest blog post.
For now, watch the trailer below, and let us know what you think!
Body Blow is out in just over a week, so we thought we'd give you the chance to win a copy.
So, we've put 5 copies up for grabs on Goodreads. You can enter the giveaway by clicking on the right-hand side of the blog, or you can go straight to the giveaway here.
Good luck!
Here's a synopsis to give you a taste of the book, and a sample chapter...
Eddie Savage is back.
While his physical scars are fading, the emotional scars are taking longer to heal. But on thing's for certain: his old life is no longer for him.
Eddie heads for Spain on the promise of sun, sea and beautiful girls - but is drawn, irrevocably, back into the criminal underworld. It appears that greater forces are at work.
Tommy Kelly may be safely locked up back home, but on the Costa del Sol the drug wars are raging... The Kelly firm is still very much alive ... and kicking.
And Eddie finds himself right in the thick of it.
Body Blow is the sequel to Long Reach, and you can watch the trailer for it below...
Praise for Long Reach:
"Pulling no punches, this action-packed thriller grabs you by the scruff of the neck and doesn't let go..." The Guardian
"Nothing about Long Reach feels as though it's been cleaned up for its target audience, and that's exactly what makes it feel so authentic and convincing..." I Was a Teenage Book Geek
Zoe Marriott is a popular fantasy writer, whose debut novel The Swan Kingdom sold over 20,000 copies. Last year, Shadows on the Moon was one of our Undercover Reads and you can watch the trailer for it, which we filmed in the beautiful Japanese Landscape in Kew Gardens, at the bottom of this post.
Zoe's upcoming book, Frostfire, is also part of Undercover Reads and is released in July (we’ll be making a trailer for it as well!)
Zoe’s fantasy heroines seemingly eschew stereotypical ‘girliness’ in all ways. Snogging doesn’t occur. Lip gloss is not applied. Fighting is more likely to be conducted with sorcery and swords than with gossip and upset.
But in this guest post, Zoe explains exactly why her books are still the perfect choice to win the very pink and sparkly ‘Queen of Teen’ award, for which nominations are currently open…
Shhhh. *Looks around furtively* I need to tell you a secret, OK?
It's really embarrassing. You won't tell anyone, right? This is just between you and me?
Here goes.
I really... kind of... love... pink.
When I was a little girl and my mum tried to put me in a pair of jeans, I threw an epic tantrum and wouldn't leave the house, even though said jeans had been specially bought because they had pink embroidered flowers all over them. When my cousin didn't invite me to be a bridesmaid at her wedding I cried for hours because I swear to you, I wanted that big pink puffy meringue dress more than I wanted to live. One of my favourite toys for years was a troll doll with hot-pink hair in a full ballerina's outfit including hot-pink tutu and toe shoes. It never left my sight.
And these days, I love something else which is very pink and sparkly. I love... the Queen of Teen Award.
I know, right!? Me! Me, with my martial arts and Feminism and fantasy/sci-fi nerdery. Me, with all the big talk about sexism and diversity and trying to write the change you want to see in the world. Me, with my powerful heroines that go around fighting and casting spells and rescuing the heroes and freeing nations.
I feel so ashamed of myself! I'm letting the side down! Right? Right?
Or how about: OH HECK NO.
What you see before you here is a dichotomy which many of us ladies face in our day to day lives. We want to be fierce, strong, independent people, fighting back against stereotypes of what femininity can and cannot be. We want respect and we are prepared to kick butt and take names until we get it.
But we also really, really, really want that pair of pink suede kitten heel slingbacks we saw on sale last week...
Humans have a problem, and it is this: we like to put things in boxes. We like to be able to put Hairy Chested Manly Things in one box, and Fragrant Pink Girly things in another. Girls may sometimes, and with a large application of effort, be allowed to play in the Hairy Chested Manly Things box and borrow some stuff (like, you know, wearing trousers, voting, owning property). But we're not allowed to have everything we might want, and we're often under threat of someone coming along and taking those things back from us. And if we like the stuff out of the boys box too much, we'll probably have some very unkind names thrown at us. And men are pretty much never allowed to glance at the Fragrant Pink Girly Box without getting sneered at and possibly beaten up by others, some of whom might even be women.
And ladies - many ladies - including me! - have seen this and they say: 'I shall not play in the Fragrant Pink Girly Box! I shall not be forced into certain roles and choices in life! I shall partake only of the Hairy Chested Manly things - like being tough and strong, and not caring about personal hygiene - AND THAT WILL JUST SHOW YOU!'
Ladies. Comrades. Sisters in arms and sisters in pink suede kitten heel slingbacks. I am here to tell you that you do not have to chose.
Many, many of the things our society has put in the Hairy Chested Manly Box, like wearing trousers, and kicking butts, and being strong, are awesome. And many, many things society has put in the Fragrant Pink Girly Box, like falling in love, and caring about relationships, are also awesome.
The thing that is very not awesome? Is the label there on the box that says 'Manly' or 'Girly'.
Because this makes those of us who like stuff from both boxes feel bad. It makes us scared. It makes us allow other people to tell us that things we like and care about and enjoy are wrong, merely because of the private parts assigned to us by fate. That is not awesome at all. It's so far from awesome that I'd quite like to catch it and put it in a box all of its very own. And then hit the box with a stick. And then drop the box off a very high cliff.
It's 2012, and all of us, boys and girls, should feel free to play in both boxes and take what we like out of both of them and then construct our own, personal idea of what it is to be a man or a woman. Pink is not essentially girly, no matter what those box loving people think (in fact, until a couple of hundred years ago pink was traditionally a boy's colour, did you know that?). And being hairy is just as much a girly thing as a man thing - anyone who has seen a woman's collection of hair removing products cannot doubt this. We do not live as hunter-gatherers anymore. The natural order of things is the way that feels natural to each of us as individuals.
My dears, the Queen of Teen award is about celebrating women's contributions to the field of Young Adult writing and all those amazing, life affirming books out there which are aimed at young women. I think we can all agree that this is a wonderful thing. And as such, I would very much like to win it, and take that sparkly Queen of Teen crown for my very own.
But now I'm the one with a problem, and my problem is this: my books... my books are not really very pink and sparkly. They are not like the books which have won the sparkly crown in the past. My books are fantasy, and they have sword-fights and magic, and blood and passion, and honour, and self-sacrifice. And on occasion, things blowing up. And even though I know very well that a lot of girls love books like this, I am worried that no one would ever think of nominating me for the Queen of Teen.
I am worried that they won't let me and my books out of the box.
You, my Dear Readers, are the only ones who can lift the lid and free me from that box. And you are the only ones who can free the Teen of Queen award from its box too. You are the ones who can make a new, box-free space where a woman who just wants to write books about magic and sword fights can win the sparkly crown she wants so so dearly. Where the award itself can be shown to be embracing all kinds of girls, including those who may not love pink things at all.
So this is a plea to you. All of you girls who love pink and sparkly things. And all of you girls who love sword fights and magic. And all of you girls who love both. The world may not want you to have strength and independence AND your suede kitten heels - but I think you can. I think we can. And if you believe it too?
Body Blow is the second Eddie Savage thriller from Peter Cocks. It's the sequel to Long Reach, which was an Undercover Read last year. If you haven't read the first book, DO! It's gritty, tense, totally gripping and has had some cracking reviews (see below). We also made a pacy book trailer for it, which you can see at the end of this post...
"Pulling no punches, this action-packed thriller grabs you by the scruff of the neck and doesn't let go..." The Guardian
"Nothing about Long Reach feels as though it's been cleaned up for its target audience, and that's exactly what makes it feel so authentic and convincing..." I Was a Teenage Book Geek
"What makes it outstanding, however, is Eddie himself: resourceful but conflicted, cocky but unsure of his abilities. We're promised more of him, as this is the start of a series. Bring it on." Laura Wilson, The Guardian
A year on, and Body Blow hits the shelves in a couple of weeks, so we asked Peter if he could write a couple of guest posts for us about the book. The main change from Long Reach is the setting. Eddie heads from the ganglands of South London to the Costa del Crime in Malaga, so we asked Peter to tell us all about his on-location research...
When I decided to send Eddie Savage to Spain on his second adventure, I had the problem that faces most writers at some point. I have some imagination, and I have been to Spain, so I could make it all up...
...or, like the dedicated researcher I am for my novels, I could take a trip to the Costa del Crime and pick up those details and bits of local colour you would never be able to imagine.
The first Eddie Savage book, Long Reach, was mostly based in and around South London, so all my research was easily done with an oyster card and some footwork. Plus cups of tea in pie and mash shops.
So I emptied out my purse and, apart from a used train ticket and a couple of moths, I found £69; the price of an Easyjet trip to Malaga. I tossed a coin and decided to go.
I headed out of Malaga airport on a bus, intending to head for Marbella, a flash town of Russian yachts and Ferrari's – the centre of all big crime deals in Southern Spain. In the harbour at Marbella, you can’t purchase a length of rope to tie up your boat, but in the quayside shops you can buy a pair of Louboutin shoes or a Gucci cocktail dress.
Then the bus stopped in Benalmadena.
It was a scruffy-looking place; the boats in the harbour were well-used charter yachts and the cars around the quay were mostly battered SEATs. So I decided to get out and take a look around. The more I looked at the run-down bars, empty building sites and gaudy nightclubs, the more I thought this would be a better place to send Eddie; rougher, more dangerous.
Someone had told me that the villains who can’t afford the high life of Marbella end up in Benalmadena.
I was hungry and thirsty and looked, for a split second, at the Burger King by the harbour, then decided to sit outside the bar opposite.
I ordered a cold beer and watched as a man stirred something cooking in an old oil drum. Seconds later, he pulled out a boiled octopus the size of a cat. He deftly snipped up the tentacles and mixed them with some yellow potatoes which had also been boiling in the cooking water. He arranged the mixture on a wooden platter, sprinkled salt and red paprika over it, then olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.
As he delivered them to a nearby table I asked, in my best Spanglish accent:
“Que es esto?” What is it?
He pointed to a sign in the window: Pulpo a Fiera. Fairground Octopus, 8 euros. I emptied out my purse again, and ordered some. Melting, spicy, oily…it was the most delicious thing I had ever eaten.
I settled back with my beer in the Spanish sun and thought that this place would suit Eddie Savage very nicely.
This scene appears in the second Eddie Savage thriller: Body Blow
Peter's written a couple more blog posts for us, which we'll post on Undercover soon. In the meantime, why not whet your appetite by watching the trailer for Long Reach below. We're currently making a book trailer for Body Blow, and a small crew are going over to Malaga early next week to film it, to make it really authentic...
Body Blow comes out in April, but you can read an extract now, and it's available to pre-order.
